Hundreds of shoppers were expected to fill Nordstrom Rack yesterday for its official grand opening as the first major store in the new Persimmon Place shopping center at Hacienda Drive and Dublin Boulevard in Dublin.
But if the crowd was anything like the shoulder-to-shoulder group I was with at a pre-opening gala Tuesday, it will be great news for the Rack’s manager Rachel Reed and for Regency Center Corp., the developer that is opening its 173,410-square-foot open air shopping center in stages over the next few weeks. Both Home Goods and Whole Foods will open later this month.
Regency built the center after marketing surveys showed the Dublin location would be a retail hub similar to the already-popular Hacienda Crossings just across the street that would draw from a high daytime population in an area where more than half earn $100,000 or more and, like Pleasanton, have an average household income of well over $130,000. It helps, too, that Nordstrom Rack has a full service Nordstrom department store just across I-580 at Stoneridge Shopping Center.
Naomi Tobis, a Nordstrom spokesperson who escorted me through the 35,000-square-foot Rack store Tuesday night, said the off-price division gives shoppers who are not familiar with the Seattle-based retailer an opportunity to try Nordstrom merchandise.
Both the full-line store and the Rack carry the same brands, but the Rack offers a different self-service, open space shopping experience. Customers shop on their own and usually find the merchandise they’re seeking on their own. Bright-green-shirted “team members” (we used to call them clerks) roam the Rack with mobile devices to quickly check out customers paying by credit card.
“No standing in long lines,” Tobis said, although team member Jim Thomas from Walnut Creek helped scores of shoppers without a Nordstrom card find the lines in front of a bevy of cash registers at one end of the store.
The new Dublin store is Nordstrom’s 178th Rack outlet in the country, with 13 now in Northern California where the company also has 10 full-line stores. Discounts range from 30-70% with 55% of the apparel for men, women and children, and the rest being accessories, handbags and shoes.
Today and through the weekend, the Rack is offering Triple Point Nordstrom Rewards and also highlighting gifts for Mother’s Day, such as fragrances, scarves, watches, handbags, robes, loungewear and jewelry boxed with sentimental themes. It’s worth another trip.
